Kenneth Reeve (OW 1941)

Ken Reeve was born and brought up in Oxford and left MCS in 1941. He served for four and a half years in the Royal Indian Navy, mostly patrolling in the Bay of Bengal and one occasion being blown up by a Japanese mine.

Returning to England in 1946, he married Daisy Loeb, whom he had met before the war, when she had found refuge here as a student opponent of the Nazi regime.

Ken then went on to read Modern History at St Catherine’s College and studied an extra year for a Dip Ed. He chose service overseas and in 1950 went to Tanganyika with his family. He took on many roles as Headmaster of a boy’s boarding school in Mwanza. As well as the teaching role, he was involved with road construction, the water supply for the school farm and building new facilities.

In 1956 they moved to Tanga, where Ken became assistant provincial education officer in charge of all government and church schools. In 1959 he returned to Mwanza with 30,000 square miles to cover and 110,000 pupils in his jurisdiction. He also helped elected local councils to learn how to be responsible for education in preparation for independence in 1961.

Back in England he took up teaching and also considered ordination, so spent time at Salisbury Theological College. However, he decided to stay in education and moved to Frome where he held the post as tutor/organiser for adult education. He was made a Deacon at Michaelmas in 1968 and priested the following year, going on to serve the church as a non-stipendiary priest for the rest of his life wherever he lived, whether it was at home or abroad.

In 1971 Ken spent a year in the British Virgin Islands inspecting the schools system and helping refashion their adult education to help with their tourism.

In 1974 Ken and Daisy went to Seychelles, where he headed the Ministry of Education, training a local successor and rewriting the educational laws. He also found himself serving as secretary to the Cabinet and permanent secretary of the Ministry of Finance. In late 1976 they returned to England where he worked for the Department of Overseas Development in London.

Retiring in 1980 Ken and Daisy moved to Wincanton and from the moment he arrived was asked to take charge of one interregnum after another!

In 2001 they moved to Saffron Walden to live near their daughter, and after Daisy died in 2004 Ken went to live with his daughter and granddaughter until he too sadly died, after a short but brave and dignified fight against Lymphoma, on 26 October 2009.

Ken was very much respected and loved by all who knew him, but they both left a large void in our lives.